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Post by dbutler69 on Feb 10, 2015 7:03:25 GMT -5
I read 19 issues of Marvel Team-Up (25-43) on the plane from Pittsburgh to Houston, in an Essentials that my daughter let me borrow from her collection. Lot of Gerry Conway with a little Len Wein and Bill Mantlo writing, with Jim Mooney and Sal Buscema doing the art. Nothing great, but it sure helped pass the time! It's fun stuff, as long as your expectations aren't too high. I think Marvel Two-in-One was the better of the team-up books.
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Post by fanboystranger on Feb 10, 2015 11:08:59 GMT -5
Just read the 1984 reprint edition of the Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson Manunter stories from Detective circa '73-'74. I read the trade collections some decade ago and liked it then, but tonight it just struck me how good those stories were, sort of a classic timeless tale that could hold up as great today as it was then. It deserves the rep it has in every way. -M Still one of my all-time favorite stories. It's such a perfect marriage of story and design. I often argue that the path to "modern" comics runs through Steranko to Goodwin/Simonson to books like Motter/Steacy's The Sacred and the Profane to Chaykin's American Flagg!. This days I'd also argue that Goodwin /Simonson's Manhunter is more sophisticated and mature than 90% of the books that claim to be those things today.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2015 14:52:47 GMT -5
So the Golden Age Dr. Fate stories have taken a turn for the worse. The first year or so of stories were mysterious, mystical, and charming, drawing on esoteric traditions and pulp staples, leading to the origin of Dr. Fate. Post origins, the stories were less compelling and then came the half-helmet, which reduced Dr. Fate to a flying strong man with mystical invulnerability, basically a generic super-hero fighting bank robbers and art thieves. Not sure if it gets better later in the run, but I was enjoying the hell out of the strip and then that enjoyment came to a screeching halt.
-M
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 11, 2015 22:41:15 GMT -5
I really liked the Airboy trade I read today (the 80s series)... I'm not familiar with it at all, just by reputation, but it was a really good read that did a great job of somehow being both '80s but not dated. Only think that made me shake my head a bit is why it's called Airboy... he's like, the 4th or 5th most important character.
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Post by Jesse on Feb 12, 2015 19:16:01 GMT -5
Chuck Dixon's Airboy was excellent especially the Sky Wolf backups.
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Post by earl on Feb 12, 2015 20:38:23 GMT -5
Chris Claremont's run on Marvel Team Up is really good, especially some of the issues where John Byrne does the artwork. I think the Spider-man and Power Man burning building issues is one of the all time great Marvel comics single issues. The team up stories with Dr. Strange and the one with Tigra and Kraven were also really good classic Spider-man comics. The Capt. Britain team up is a pretty key issue in some ways too that with the Arcade appearance kind of ties into the early X-men stories.
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Post by paulie on Feb 12, 2015 21:19:13 GMT -5
Chris Claremont's run on Marvel Team Up is really good, especially some of the issues where John Byrne does the artwork. I think the Spider-man and Power Man burning building issues is one of the all time great Marvel comics single issues. The team up stories with Dr. Strange and the one with Tigra and Kraven were also really good classic Spider-man comics. The Capt. Britain team up is a pretty key issue in some ways too that with the Arcade appearance kind of ties into the early X-men stories. What you say is correct. Let's not forget how good Dave Hunt made Byrne's pencils look.
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Post by spoon on Feb 14, 2015 14:13:45 GMT -5
A few days ago I received the last issues to complete a run of Batman and the Outsiders/Adventures of the Outsiders. So of course, I decided to read the series from the beginning. I don't feel like I can do an "Outsiders from the Beginning" thread enough justice or spend enough time, so I'll probably just post here. It's going to be interesting, because I read a bunch of the issues as a bought them, but there's also a bunch I've never read.
So far, I've read the preview from Brave and the Bold #200 and the first four issues of BATO. The first issue features the well-known cover of Batman rejected the JLA in favor of his new team. The way the team is assembled is interesting. They all find themselves in Markovia for independent reasons (except Black Lightning, who has been recruited to help Batman with his rescue mission). The first two issues are the Markovia storyline. We get nice introductions of the all characters, with a solid bit of mystery (especially regarding Halo and Katana) remaining. Katana's sword has it's word balloons? I kind of know what that's about, but it must've been a trip for kids reading it for the first time. It's a nice mix of existing characters (Batman, Metamopho, and Black Lightning) and new ones (Halo, Katana, and Geo-Force). Since this is the 1980s, Barr and Aparo are thoughtful enough to have some diversity from the beginning. We actually start with two female members. It seems just about every super-hero team before than starts with 0 or 1, and only adds more female members later. And they make the scientist, Dr. Jace, a woman as well. And we have two non-white members. Even the All-New, All-Different X-Men had the Japanese guy resign and the Apache dude take a dirtnap within a couple issues.
I love Aparo's art. He was my Batman artist growing up. That was actually a few years later, when he took over the main Batman title. The new characters have nice designs. I think there's a good balance in the portrayal of Batman - showing how he can be an iconoclastic loner and a team leader at the same time. We already have a set-up for long-term character dynamics, with Katana as a surrogate mother of sorts for the amnesiac teenager Halo. The series definitely provides adventure that you'd expect from a series trying to keep young readers as its base, but #4 does have interesting discussion at the end about the penal system.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2015 0:13:28 GMT -5
Finished the first FF Epic volume, leading up to #18. Felt like Lee and Kirby were really just starting to settle in and find the beginning of a groove on the tile, as a lot of the issues here were a little uneven and I had forgotten how often Namor was the villain/antagonist early on.
Also finished the solo Luke Cage stuff in the essential volumes (up through issue 47), 48 begins the guest starring of Iron Fist which leads to him joining the title outright in #50, but I have 48 up in comic format, so I am done with the essential format. I am missing some of the solo Iron Fist issues so not sure if I will dive into PM/IF yet or try to track those done first.
As I noted in the Spider-Man review thread, I dug out the first ASM Masterworks volume and read AF 15 as well. Not sure if I will continue with the volume at this time, but I might.
Also continuing my chronological read through REH's Conan stuff, and read Scarlet Citadel last night. Queen of the Black Coast is next on the docket there.
-M
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Post by dbutler69 on Feb 16, 2015 9:17:33 GMT -5
Chris Claremont's run on Marvel Team Up is really good, especially some of the issues where John Byrne does the artwork. I think the Spider-man and Power Man burning building issues is one of the all time great Marvel comics single issues. The team up stories with Dr. Strange and the one with Tigra and Kraven were also really good classic Spider-man comics. The Capt. Britain team up is a pretty key issue in some ways too that with the Arcade appearance kind of ties into the early X-men stories. Absolutely! The ones with the Wasp & Yellowjacket are forever etched in my lousy memory, so they must have been good.
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Post by dbutler69 on Feb 16, 2015 9:44:44 GMT -5
Finished the first FF Epic volume, leading up to #18. Felt like Lee and Kirby were really just starting to settle in and find the beginning of a groove on the tile, as a lot of the issues here were a little uneven and I had forgotten how often Namor was the villain/antagonist early on. I feel like that series really takes off around #44. Up till then, it's uneven as you say, and the Hulk-Thing battles and the Thing's humor in general are the real highlights for me, plus maybe a couple of Dr. Doom's appearances.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2015 16:11:22 GMT -5
I have been reading the first issues of Daredevil's very first solo. And more Tales to Astonish stories. And more Flash.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Feb 21, 2015 19:11:24 GMT -5
On the recommendation of fanboystranger, mrp, and others on the CCF, I just finished the first volume of Agents of Atlas. Although the sheer number of retcons happening here might strain even Roy Thomas' credulity, I felt they were all done in the service of a really engaging adventure story. Loved it.
I'm a huge fan of the original Yellow Claw title from the fifties, a book discontinued after four issues. Agents of Atlas resolves the story of Yellow Claw and his pursuer, FBI (later S.H.I.E.L.D.) agent Jimmy Woo in a very unexpected and interesting fashion. Created by writer Al Feldstein and artist Joe Maneely, Jimmy Woo was an Asian-American hero at a time when such things simply did not exist in American comics. It is very gratifying to see that he has not been forgotten, and that he is still a strong leader and a vigorous, noble force for good in the MU.
Of minor note, I have owned Menace #11 (1954) for years. I bought it for the terrific Harry Anderson (not the guy from Night Court) cover art, but it also contains the story "I, the Robot" from which M-11 (Menace 11, get it?) hails. I was familiar with the story, but I hadn't looked at it in so long that I had forgotten the artist was John Romita, Sr.!
Thanks for a great recommendation everyone!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2015 19:26:19 GMT -5
Glad you liked it. I also liked that the first volume had a number of Golden/atomic Age reprints featuring some of the characters, exposing me to a number of comics I likely would never have had the chance to read. I may nee dot take out that collection and read it again here sometime soon, and then get to the other Agents of Atlas stuff I have in my not yet read piles.
As I noted earlier, I have finished the FF Epic collection and the 2 Cage Essentials (up o where I own floppies) and have started on the first volume of Amazing Spider-Man Masterworks (up to issue 5 now) and the first Uncanny X-Men omnibus (read up through #97 so far), revisiting some Marvel classics. Also still making my way through the Golden age Dr. Fate archives, which I have noted elsewhere, have become much less interesting with the move o making Fate just another generic super-hero. Also continuing my way through Howard's Conan tales in the order they were written (not in the order of Conan's life as de Camp and Carter ordered them) and I'm in he midst of reading Queen of the Black Coast currently. I also started my way through Burroughs Return of Tarzan, the second Tarzan novel. I also finished Vol. 6 of Raymond's Flash Gordon that I had from Checker. On a non-classic note, I read the first volume of the Future's End collection form DC, and am still undecided if I like it or hate it. There were some things in it I liked, but overall it represents a lot of what I don't like about the modern grimdark feel of a lot of DC comics.
I've hit a little bit of a lull in reading here the last few days, so I may start to mix in some other stuff that piques my interest.
-M
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Post by The Captain on Feb 23, 2015 8:17:04 GMT -5
Just finished reading Marc Spector: Moon Knight in its entirety as I work my way through the whole Moon Knight saga from start to finish. I'd read a few of the issues here and there but never with any regularity previously, so this was my first time digesting large chunks of it.
The early issues by Chuck Dixon were pretty good, and even some of the issues in the late 20's were decent, but the train starting coming off the tracks in the mid-30's, as they had a major (and nonsensical) retcon concerning Marc's brother Randall, who was the main villain in a classic story that appeared in the old Hulk magazine as a back-up. From there, it was all downhill with Infinity War/Crusade crossovers and a run of issues, from #52 until the series was mercifully put out of its misery at #60, that rank among the very worst comics I've ever read. The "Hellbent" storyline was unfathomably incoherent, making Marc the descendent of some sort of life-force stealing vampire or something; to be honest, I could barely keep the new interchangeable characters straight and really struggled to get through the books just so I could cross it off my list.
Lastly, I have no idea why the Stephen Platt issues were so highly sought after; I luckily (??) picked them up within the last couple of years out of $1 boxes, so I was not paying $10+ for each of them just to complete the series, which is a very good thing. I mean, I do understand because he was the new shiny toy and was about to go off to play with the Image boys, but his art sucked bad; it was a knock-off of MacFarlane and a very bad one at that. There are panels where Moon Knight resembles Charlie 27 of the original Guardians of the Galaxy, about 5' tall and 3' wide, and that's not a good thing.
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